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Family weekend in Nottingham

 

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On Saturday 17th September 2011, a total of 43 people came to our third DPDC weekend. 21 deaf mums and dads and 22 deaf children aged from a few months old to eight years old all met up a the National Ice Centre in Nottingham, for a weekend of workshops and fun for all the kids in a completely BSL environment!

After the all the kids were settled into the crèche for a day of painting, fun and games – the parents all took part in a day long workshop. The morning saw parents chair a range of topics which were of great importance and relevance to everyone, such as the Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) which is what can be seen as a passport to a good education for each deaf child, and Inclusion Funding (also called Aiming High) which funds interpreter support for each child at after school clubs/activities – which many of the parents had not heard of before the weekend. After an intensive morning of discussion and debating, all the parents and kids retired to the National Ice Centre cafe for lunch.

Once everyone was refueled, all the kids went back into the crèche to start work on the giant DPDC hand printed poster and the parents settled down to discuss the direction of the DPDC group and plan some more workshops around the country, and also plan some exciting events for all deaf parents of deaf children in 2012 of which will be announced when plans are confirmed and funding is secured.

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This weekend would not have been possible without the generous support again from Remark! Community, and also Signamics. Sponsorship was needed to cover the venue hire costs, and costs for the mobile crèche to enable the parents to have their all important workshop.

Clarion Interpreting provided us with interpreters from their excellent Community Chest scheme. The interpreters helped out with the crèche and ensured that all the children, volunteers and crèche workers were communicating efficiently, and they went beyond the call of duty and were fantastic!

Thank you again to Remark Community, Signamics and Clarion Interpreting for making the workshops and the successful weekend happen.

A big thank you too to our fantastic volunteers who worked tirelessly to make sure all the kids were having fun – Marcella, Aman and Laura!

On the Sunday, five deaf families and their kids all went to the Wheelgate Adventure Park in Mansfield. As there was so much to see and do, it was a jam-packed day of fun and laughter for all the kids and parents. It was great to see deaf children socialise with other deaf children from similar family set ups and be able to communicate with any adult or child within the group in their native BSL, which is a real luxury hence the importance of our group and why DPDC needs to go from strength to strength!

I think the group would agree with us that it was a very inspirational weekend and we are very excited about the future of DPDC, keep an eye out for us and let us know if you would like to join our group or support us by contacting us at hello (at) deafparentsdeafchildren.co.uk

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